Type of housing: Apartment/House

Arranged by: Independently - I had no other choice

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? It was nice spending some months with native italian people as it allowed me know better the country I was living.

Personal comments:
I was so lucky of finding an appartment next to Piazza San Pietro in Rome. The renting was pretty cheap and just five minutes from the underground.

Describe host city: Students equally interact with the local and student community

Activities, Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Nightlife: Takes place both within and outside of the university/student environment

Personal comments:
On our week of arrival, the Roma 3 Erasmus association, e3, had organized a whole wewk of activities! Amongst them, a visit to Ostia Antica and party every nights! I was exhausted after that week I had to slow down for a couple of month as I was getting settled. Bar San Callisto in Trastever is the best. Also the bars on Campo de' Fiori... I have fond memories. As soon as the spring weather was warm enough, we would take the train to Ostia every week-end to spend the day at the sea!

Course recommendations:
As far as the quality of the classes I attended, I don't have any doubts (one of my thesis juror back in Belgium actually knew one of my teacher in Italy, a Harvard Fellow). I guess everybody knows the feeling of being part of the Erasmus gang. Although we were only 4-5 students in International Relations, I hardly had contacts with the local students and I regret it. The few locals students i befriended though became really good friends.

Personal comments:
I chose 4 classes (2 for each semesters) and passed exams in february and June. I was awarded the same marks despite how poor I fared on 2 exams. I'm not going to complain but it didn't reflect my real abilities. I suspect teachers had a guideline abour assessing Erasmus. Teachers are very approachable (it's a small faculty) and did every thing they could to make things easier, giving you advice, invinting you to conferences, etc.

Language of instruction: Italian

Main source of funding:
An ERASMUS grant

Other sources of funding:
Family

Work opportunities:
I didn't want/need to work

Personal spending habits:
Food was cheaper, I barely used the phone (we had a cell-phone that was provided by the landlord for everyone in the house and it had a card, when the card expired, we could still receive call, I bought phone cards from time to time in case I needed to call friends or family.

Travel: was more expensive than at home.

Nightlife, Housing: was the same price as at home.

Food, Overall, Telephone: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
I had no bad surprises at all... except that I thought I'd interact more with my host-university students, I was a little disappointed about that. To compemsate, my flatmate was the best and I met some amazing people, some of whom I am still in contact with today.

In my opinion:
Most people loved it.